Budget guru Stan Collender isn't impressed with Newt Gingrich's revisionist take on the government shutdowns of the mid-1990s, and his riposte is a nice capsule summary of what drove the budget battles -- and budget successes -- of the era:

And earlier this year E.M. Halliday's much-praised "Understanding Thomas Jefferson" -- its very title a riposte to Ellis, whose earlier study "American Sphinx" emphasized Jefferson's unknowability -- tried to make sense of Jefferson's contradictory attitudes about race and sexuality by examining both his personal experience and his literary tastes.

I like riposte, but what's the word for a counterattack executed *in anticipation* of a (usually telegraphed) attack? Think in NES Punch Out, where some opponents will rear back for a haymaker, and the proper response is a quick jab in that moment of vulnerability. It's not just a boxing term, but also a good metaphor. This one has been nagging at me. Help!

To be followed, if I'm not mistaken, by a remise or a reprise, in turn met with a redouble. And I could swear the counter-riposte, and the counter-counter-riposte, have their place as well. But I'm often wrong.